Auld Lang Syne… blessed memories… blessed outlook!

I certainly hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebration… is welcoming in the New Year with joy in their heart…and that their spirit is filled with anticipation of a blessed year ahead!

I feel so blessed with a simple but joyous celebration with those I hold dear. Not that there were not others I would have loved to have seen. But with family scattered across the continent… we have to see who we can… when we can. While trusting those we will have to see at another time know we love them and wish them “all the best”!

I was lucky to get to see some old buddies from High School that I have not been able to go out with in decades. It was interesting to see how much we have all changed in some ways… and just how little we have changed in others. It is always a blessing to recall some of the fun we had back in the day. Sometimes things nearly forgotten after so many years. I had such a wonderful time catching up. But can’t wait to do it again when we maybe have some more time. That night I was focused mostly on all the fun times we had… yet as I listened to stories of what everyone has been up to recently… I could not help but wonder some about all I have missed.

Then as I was driving home today… I thought about some of the things I left behind all those years ago. Not really with regret… as I truly feel blessed by the life I live. But I guess we all slip back in time… recalling events passed… and wondering what if? Honestly… we are all pretty lucky to still be around. We laughed about one time… after some heavy rains… we decided to canoe a local river that was a favorite. We noticed the river was high when we dropped a truck down river. But when we pulled up to the bridge where we were to put in… it became apparent just how high the river really was. Normally we had to drag the canoes a fair distance down from the end of the bridge… past the woods along the bank… then down the bank to the water. But that day the water was clear up into the woods way up outside the bank. I think we all probably wondered just how foolish it might be to go ahead and launch… but nobody wanted to be the first one to say anything. So before long… we were out in the heavy current… moving fast and dodging debris. We talked about having to duck under bridges… and as I recall the water was much closer to the under side of the bridges than we had ever seen it.

The highlight of that outing was where part of the water was way up out of the banks… with enough flow we were able to paddle through one of the bean fields planted up off the bank in the old river bottom. The water was deeper than the beans were tall… and we had a good mini channel out through this field. We followed this channel out around some of the normal switchbacks in the river… but eventually noticed it turning back toward the main river channel. This was the first time any of us had considered the conditions under which this temporary overflow might rejoin the river. This was also where we started hearing a dull roar up ahead. The transition out of the main river had been very smooth… and we assumed the same at the other end. But as the offshoot started heading back toward the main river… all we could see was a line of heavy woods ahead. We also began to notice there was a steeper slope towards those trees and the gentle current of this channel was starting to pick up. Next thing we know… we are trying to steer our 17’ canoes through thick woods bouncing off trees like pinballs. The further we go… it seems the faster the current got… and the louder the roar ahead got. These conditions might have been great in a white water kayak. But were down right treacherous in our big old canoes. We were hardly steering as much as pushing off trees trying to pick as straight a path as we could find. When we saw the water dropping even faster ahead… eventually flowing out of the woods and spilling over the bank back into the main river. I think we were all amazed when we came shooting out of the woods… over that drop… without getting wrapped around a tree. If we had dumped in those woods… and hit a tree broad side… I think the current would have folded our boats around the tree like a ribbon. We tried at first to claim our superior paddling skills had served us well… but soon had to chalk it up to dumb luck where the credit belonged.

I still wonder what purpose each of us has served (or is yet to serve) that has blessed us with some very over active guardian angels. They must be as grey haired and worn out as we are these days. Then I thought about how one of my buddies married the sister of a girl I went to school with back in the day. At one point driving home I thought about the sister I knew… and how we were pretty good friends. I wondered briefly why I had never asked her out. Then recalled that I thought she was so far out of my league… that I was just glad we were friends… and I didn’t want to screw that up. I remembered having a bit of a crush on her… but even more so on one of her friends I thought didn’t even know who I was. I got smacked several times by some of my friends to bring me out of the daze I would slip into as these girls would walk by where we hung out after lunch. I recalled it being like a scene in a movie where all the other dialogue fades and some type of love song would play… complete with birds chirping and clouds surrounding the girls of my dreams… obscuring everything else… until the elbow in the ribs would bring me back out of the haze… and I would hear a friend mumble… back to earth you idiot!

Ahhh… to be young again… and feel those kinds of feelings! I wondered if I got a second chance… would I be able to muster the nerve to talk to that girl? I found myself laughing as I drove down the road… hearing my buddy… back to earth idiot!

I have sooo many blessed memories of those days… but also from all the days since… and even more so from these days. I enjoyed so much seeing Mom, Melody, Dewey, Howard, Beth.  And the day Amie and her fiancé James stopped by was a real treat. Mom said the only thing that could have made it better was if Jesse had come along in person. Instead, he sent an interesting present wrapped in an interesting way… for his sister to unwrap.

Howard and I got a few things done at mom’s while I was there. But most of the time we spent talking and catching up on things. We were watching some shows about couples trying to find a first home… and mom recalled some stories about how different things were when her and my dad were trying to find their first home. Mom laughed at how picky these women in these shows are and their incredibly high standards… and just how unreal todays standards would have been back in their day. I still love to hear those old stories.      

I pray your holiday has been a wonderful mixture of old memories that warm your heart… along with a bright outlook onto the year ahead… boosting your spirits with the peace of a Merry Christmas… and the Happiest of New Years!